- Would you watch this movie again?
- Did you connect with the movie on a personal level?
- Did you feel the emotional impact that you think the film intended?
- Do you think the movie satisfies what you consider to be the goals of cinema?
- Do you think it satisfies what you consider to be the goals of art?
- Do you think the movie's artistic intent is interesting?
- Do you think those intentions are well executed?
- Do you agree with the theme or moral you feel the film tries to convey?
For the mathematically inclined, each question can be though of as a binary digit. For the computer inclined, each question can be thought of as a bit. Arrange the digits/bits in order, with the first question being the most significant, and it produces a number between 0 and decimal 255. Congratulations! That's your rating.
For the rest of you, think this way: a no gives no points, and a yes gives some points. Each question gives twice as many points as the one below it, and question 8 (the last one) gives one point. For those of you who still can't be bothered to do the math, question 7 gives 2 points, 6 gives 4, 5 gives 8, 4 gives 16, the third gives 32, the second gives 64, and the first question gives 128 points. Add all these together, and you have a rating.
This is the same way that you grade System 1. The difference between Systems 1 and 2 is a few questions: I collapsed the last four questions of System 1 into two questions, and added two new questions in the second and last spots, respectively.
On to the good stuff: the Coen brothers rundown. To recap, basically as a way to "calibrate" a System, I review all of the Coen brothers' movies I've seen more than once. I chose only movies I've seen multiple times to more fairly evaluate them, I chose to stick with a single director's work because it's much easier to subjectively compare two films if they share the vision of a common director, and I chose the Coen brothers because I've seen more movies by them than anyone else.
- Blood Simple: 255, or 11111111
- Raising Arizona: 155, or 10011011
- Miller's Crossing: 255, or 11111111
- Barton Fink: 255, or 11111111
- The Big Lebowski: 255, or 11111111
- No Country for Old Men: 255, or 11111111
- A Serious Man: 255, or 11111111
- True Grit: 137, or 10001001
Since I've only reviewed three movies thus far, I shall re-review those films in a later post, addressing only the changes from System 1 to System 2, in order to produce System 2 ratings for them and see how they stack up. This new system will not replace System 1. Since the questions themselves are nearly identical, I will continue to answer them all and provide ratings for both systems. However, I instinctively feel that this system is an improvement over System 1, and I intend to see which one produces results I feel most accurately reflect my opinions. I may phase System 1 out at a later date, or I may decide System 1 was right all along and remove System 2.
Readers, please comment! And rate movies. Leah, do more than say "I haven't seen any Coen brothers movies" because I know you have.
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